Massachusetts receives final approval for $250 million in Race to the Top education funds

BOSTON - Massachusetts received final approval for its application for federal Race to the Top money to improve education, and is expected to start distributing money to schools within the next two weeks.

The state received $250 million that will be distributed during the next four years to help schools make innovative changes to attract, develop and retain an excellent teaching work force; provide new curriculum and instructional resources; concentrate the best instruction and supports in the lowest-performing schools and increase the number of students who graduate from high school, according to officials at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

To receive the money, administrators, the School Committee and teachers’ unions all had to agree to comply with several stipulations that would make it easier to reform education. A total of 257 districts, or 70 percent of the state’s schools, agreed to the provision. Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee all signed the agreement.